The present invention relates to securing file transfers in augmented and virtual reality, and more specifically, to secured file transfer management on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices.
When operating in AR and VR environments, there may be situations where it is desired to exchange information, such as identification of one or more users, authorization, requested response(s) to an inquiry, etc. In these situations, it may still be desired to not expose the information that is shared with those unauthorized to obtain the information, particularly when the information contains sensitive information, such as banking account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, health information, or other sensitive information.
The transferring of files in AR and VR environments is happening more and more frequently between users and devices as the use of these environments increases and expands to encompass more and more of our daily lives. With the growth in data security breaches, and the increased amount of sensitive data being transferred in files, security is a critical concern for file transfers.
Data encryption is typically used to secure a file transfer, and to prevent unauthorized actors from being able to understand the content of the file transfer. Conventionally, two basic techniques are used for encrypting data: symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption.
Symmetric encryption is also referred to as secret key encryption, which uses a secret key to encrypt and decrypt data. But the problem with this encryption technique is that exchanging the secret key over the internet may result in the secret key being intercepted by an unauthorized entity. This unauthorized entity is now able to decrypt all of the data that is transferred over the connection. In this way, the file transfer security is reduced or eliminated.
Asymmetric encryption uses a key pair to encrypt and decrypt data: a public key and a private key. Because the public key is intended to be public, there is no need to worry about exposing the public key to others. However, this technique of encryption is more time consuming to encrypt and decrypt data since asymmetric keys are typically quite lengthy. Therefore, this technique is not suitable to encrypt large amounts of data, as would be appropriate for file transfer encryption.
In addition, with the increasing prevalence of wearable devices and head-mounted devices, a more compelling and convenient user experience would also benefit file transfer encryption for use in AR and VR environments.